1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electrooptic device and an electronic device suitable for use in displaying various information.
2. Related Art
Known electrooptic devices include image display devices such as stereoscopic display devices that display 3D images and double display devices that present different images to viewers in different positions. One of the 3D stereoscopic display devices is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2857429 which is capable of stereoscopic display of a parallax barrier system. This image display device controls an electronic parallax barrier of the image display surface adjacent to the viewer by a control means such as a microcomputer to generate stripe openings and light shielding portions of a specified shape in positions of the electronic parallax barrier. For example, the openings of the electronic parallax barrier are formed so that when 3D images are presented to the viewer, an image for left eyes enters viewer's left eyes and an image for right eyes enters viewer's right eyes; when 2D (planar) images are presented to the viewer, the entire area of the electronic parallax barrier are open so that all the images enter the viewer's both eyes.
Furthermore, an image display device capable of double display has appeared which can present different images to viewers in different positions by disposing a barrier having slit openings and light-shielding portions on the side of the display panel adjacent to the viewers.
However, since the image display device disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2857429 has the electronic parallax barrier on the image display surface on the viewer side, it has the disadvantage that part of the light that has exited from the image display surface is blocked by the light-shielding portions of the electronic parallax barrier. This decreases the luminance of the image seen by the viewer, resulting in a dark image. Moreover, with the known display device capable of double display, the viewing range is decreased as the pixel pitch of the display panel is decreased because the viewing range of the viewer is proportional to the pixel pitch. Accordingly, this display device has the problem of difficulty in providing high-definition images to viewers in different positions.
Thus, an image display device capable of double display and stereoscopic display by controlling the directions of lights having different polarizing axes using a lenticular lens. This image display device has a polarization-controlling liquid crystal panel on the light incident side of the lenticular lens to generate lights having different polarizing axes. The polarization-controlling liquid crystal panel includes a pair of substrates, liquid crystal between the pair of substrates, and a plurality of stripe electrodes on the inner surfaces of the substrates. The polarization-controlling liquid crystal panel can change the orientation of the liquid crystal corresponding to the position of specified electrodes of the stripe electrodes by application of voltage to the specified electrodes. Thus, the polarization-controlling liquid crystal panel can emit light having different polarizing axes including light that passes through the liquid crystal corresponding to the specified electrodes and light that passes through the liquid crystal corresponding to the position other than the position of the specified electrodes.
However, the image display device using the lenticular lens has the problem of depolarization in which the polarizing characteristic of the light incident on the lenticular lens is eliminated by the double refraction or the scattering of light.